By Deborah Whyte
President of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach, Reverend Lawrence Tetteh has spoken about irresponsible journalism that has been ongoing in the media space for the past few years.
According to him, we live in a small global village where people from all around the world know what is going on through social media. It is illegal and defamation of character to publish a false story just because you want to trend. That is irresponsible journalism.” Get your facts rights. Get your information right. Do not be in a hurry to publish a story until it has been thoroughly verified” he asserted.
In an interview on the GTV breakfast show, he stated that journalism is not a fight, it is disseminating credible information without using vulgar language. Journalism must educate, inform, promote and enlighten, not tarnish people’s reputation.
“We have families, loved ones, and close friends who would not be happy to hear our prestige and intelligence undermined. I have been victimised several times”, he revealed. Some journalists who do not understand the ethics of journalism are as bad as an uncouth bloggers.
He advised the public not to give credence to false information and must condemn all irresponsible journalism. It is about time we go beyond ignoring such false information and put an end to this reckless behaviour.
“Journalists who continually make it a point to spew nonsense must be penalised. Let’s be very careful and sensitive about the way we handle issues. We need sanity in the system and this nonsense must stop,” he ended.
